This information is pre-Katrina.Although the information on this page is out-of-date, we are continuing to make it available, as it provides insight about this neighborhood pre-Katrina. You may find outdated information and broken links.

Finding the information you need within long rows of numbers is a tricky task, even under the best of conditions. When the terms used by the U.S. Census are different from everyday usage, the task becomes even harder.

For this reason, we've added a variety of side notes to these data tables, as well as links to the technical definition for each indicator. Our aim is to explain definitions that are sometimes misleading, and also to point you to additional information that you may find useful for program planning and grantwriting.

Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Full-count Characteristics (SF1). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org>

What's the difference between households and families? The Census definition of family is people living together who are related... by birth, marriage, or adoption. In contrast, the definition of household is all the persons who occupy a housing unit.

Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Full-count Characteristics (SF1). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org>Note on the category of Hispanic: To assist in local analysis, we recalculated the ethnicity Hispanic to make it comparable to the Census' racial categories. To learn more, read this short article Race & Ethnicity in the Census.

How does racial diversity of the Audubon neighborhood compare to other Orleans neighborhoods?

In order to better visualize patterns of racial segregation in New Orleans, we mapped percent of population of different races by Census block group. (A block group is smaller than a neighborhood, and typically contains between 600 and 3,000 people.) Looking at this information by block group allows one to not only analyze racial composition across neighborhoods, but also look at smaller patterns of segregation within a given neighborhood.

On the maps linked below, you'll see the Audubon neighborhood highlighted in orange.

If you want to conduct a more thorough analysis of the patterns of residential segregation across all Orleans neighborhoods, follow this link.

The percentages in these maps come from the number of people who checked either African American, White, Hispanic or Asian on their 2000 Census form.

Marital status and other partnerships

The Census depends primarily on self-reported marital status. Married, for example, includes couples who live together who chose this category to represent their relationship. But many respondents may have indicated only their legally-recognized marital status. The limited number of categories offered by the Census does not capture living arrangements such as unmarried opposite-sex or same-sex couples.

Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Sample Characteristics (SF3). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org>Note on same-sex unmarried partners: For the first time, Census 2000 asked a series of questions that allowed, theoretically, for a count of households with same-sex couples. In practice, however, these data and their interpretation are complex and potentially flawed. If you would like assistance obtaining and using this data, please fill out a data request through Ask Allison.

Household Characteristics

Which number do you need? There are many ways to look at household characteristics. To get a more complete perspective, we recommend you take a look at households by type, and also scroll down to view data on what types of households children and the elderly live in. Note, we have chosen to look at 'households' rather than 'families' because of the Census' narrow definition of 'family.'

Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Full-count Characteristics (SF1). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org>

Whos watching the kids?

One way of understanding children who might be in need of childcare or out-of-school-time care is to look at whether or not the parent or parents all work. If all parents (meaning if it is a single mom, she works or if there are two parents, they both work), then the child is more likely to need supervised activities  either with another adult caretaker or through organized activities during the times the parents are working.

While this does not capture the many creative caregiving arrangements families use (such as one sister in the family who watches her three sisters children), it does create a starting point for planning out-of-school program needs.

Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Sample Characteristics (SF3). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org>

Grandparents as caregivers

Recently, there has been a lot of interest in understanding the role of grandparents as caregivers. Census 2000 data focuses on the number of grandparents who have responsibility for a grandchild (or grandchildren) in the household they live in, but does not give us information on the number of children who have grandparents as caregivers.